About BlastGate.com
Founder Chris de Jongh and his business partner Rene Helmus are both engineers spending their free time woodworking. Their journey started early 2021 when they were evaluating automated sliding dampers for their own workshops. Available products were either too expensive, too limited, low quality, non-flexible and non-compliant. They found that the vast majority of professional companies use pneumatic sliding dampers which have serious drawbacks in their use and installation (compressed air needed, wiring, PLC programming, single point of failure, maintenance …). They decided to develop a new generation of electric, wireless sliding dampers.
ATEX, costs and safety
Besides a flawless, easy to install and smart system, our aim was to develop an ATEX compliant product for usage in explosion hazardous environments. Many companies associate ATEX with “costs” rather than with safety. ATEX certified products are usually more expensive because of the higher development costs and costly certification process by a third party. And secondly companies spend considerable money to certify their dust collection system on site.
We succeeded in producing an ATEX compliant product (zone 21 & 22) without the usual high costs. Our customers can build a safer ducting system with more flexibility and lower energy costs for similar costs compared to legacy pneumatic systems.
Stay healthy
Companies whose workers are subject to the risk of inhaling dust are becoming more conscious of the fact that dust poses a high risk to the health of their workers. Medical research has shown that inhaling fine dust over an extended period of time will reduce your respiratory capacity, it may lead to developing allergic reactions, early medical retirement and, in a few cases, nasal cancer. For those who work in an environment with fine dust, the best protection remains a respirator mask with a HEPA filter.
At BlastGate.com, our goal is to raise awareness for the health risk connected to fine dust. In the average workshop where manual sliding dampers are used, dust extraction is poor if dampers are left open all the time. Dust collection will be greatly improved if you only extract dust at the machines that are actually in operation. And that’s what we achieved with our automated sliding dampers.
Durability
As a manufacturer, we have a responsibility to produce a durable and sustainable product.
At BlastGate.com, we care for the environment and therefore we choose materials and production methods with low environmental impact. We have made our products modular so that parts can be easily replaced if necessary to extend the lifespan. Our products, with today’s rising energy costs, will help you to both save on your energy bill and lower the CO2 footprint of your company.